Favorite Denmark with peat festival
The European Handball Championship has its next sensation
January 17, 2024, 7:57 p.m
Co-favorite Spain doesn’t even reach the main round of the European Handball Championship, with the highly rated Norwegians the next top team is about to be eliminated just a few hours later. Top favorite Denmark, on the other hand, is impressive.
The Norwegian national handball team experienced another disappointment at the European Championships. The more highly ranked Scandinavians lost against Portugal 32:37 (15:18) at the start of the main round group II in Hamburg. In the preliminary round, the team led by former Kiel superstar Sander Sagosen suffered a defeat against Slovenia and only played a sensational draw against the Faroe Islands. The semi-finals are almost impossible for the Norwegians.
Against the Portuguese they only dominated the first 20 minutes of the first half. After that, they had less and less control over the mobile southern Europeans. Pedro Portella (8 goals) and Martim Costa (7) in particular were unstoppable. Kristian Björnsen (6) scored best for the Norwegians. Sagosen only contributed two goals. The Portuguese’s greatest international success so far was sixth place at the 2020 European Championship. Norway can no longer reach the semi-finals on their own, and the Scandinavians are threatened with their worst performance at a tournament since 2014.
“We are not good enough. There is no other answer,” said Sagosen, who has been particularly criticized by the Norwegian media. We keep up from the start, but after a while we make simple mistakes. We become hesitant and uncertain and start to play without concentration. Then neither we nor I are good enough,” Sagosen tells Dagbladet. “This is the biggest setback I have experienced with the Norwegian national team. The criticism of me is justified.”
This means that within a few hours the next medal dreams of a co-favorite for precious metal have been dashed. On Tuesday, vice-European champions Spain, who had reached at least the final of all European Championships since 2016, had already failed in the preliminary round: after a terrible opening defeat, the experienced Iberians dramatically missed the victory they needed to advance against outsiders Austria, the 30:30 -The final score was only a few seconds before the end after a wild game.
Top favorites march
Top favorite Denmark, on the other hand, is still showing no signs of weakness: after a flawless preliminary round, the series world champion also won the start of the main round, but had a long time with the Netherlands at 39:27 (18:17). The outsiders were able to keep the game open for almost 40 minutes, then the Danes pulled away with an 11-1 run – during which the Netherlands didn’t score a goal for almost 13 minutes. The Danes’ best goalscorer was Bundesliga professional Mathias Gidsel from Füchse Berlin.
Sweden also remains on course for the semi-finals. The defending champion beat Slovenia lackluster but confidently at all times 28:22 (11:7). Both Scandinavian teams lead Main Round Group II with four points. The German team starts the second group phase on Thursday against Iceland (8.30 p.m. / ZDF and in the live ticker on ntv.de). In order to move into the semi-finals, national coach Alfred Gislason’s team must win all four upcoming main round games.